Australia bans social media for under-16s: the first domino towards a new digital world?

Australia has just approved groundbreaking social media regulation that bans users under 16 from accessing platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and X. This under-16 social media ban is the first of its kind that does not allow exceptions for existing users or those with parental permission. Platforms must now prevent under-16s from creating accounts or face fines. 

The legislation leaves specific targets up to Australia’s Communications Minister, who has named major apps TikTok, Snapchat, X, Instagram, and Facebook in her statements. Gaming and messaging platforms are notably exempt and platforms that do not require an account to use, like YouTube, will likely be unaffected, too. 

There have been other attempts at bans in the past, such as in the European Union, namely restricting the use of platforms by under-13s or requiring parental permission for minors. Platforms like Instagram now have different account layouts for younger users that allow parents to oversee their children’s social use, for example. Yet this new social media regulation is far stricter and points to the fact that regulatory bodies do not consider previous measures enough – if effective at all. Moreover, the responses of other governments, such as the UK, have indicated that if such legislation proves effective in Australia it will likely be implemented elsewhere. 

The big question: how will social media regulations be enforced?

Few will object to the idea that uninhibited social media usage can have detrimental effects on minors. However, actually enforcing regulation to limit that usage is incredibly challenging. Anyone who has come of age on the internet will know the ease with which “are you over the age of 18?” can be clicked away. The idea of uploading a legal ID to access cat memes feels burdensome, if not invasive, considering the lack of robust data privacy and protection online. The many consumers who have already had their phone numbers leaked to marketers (or worse, scammers) are not exactly lining up to share their passport IDs next.

Perhaps the blockchain could be of some use here. As a back-end infrastructure that allows for both encryption and certification of legitimacy, it would be an ideal technology on which to develop digital ‘IDs’ that can confirm users’ ages without putting their personal identification information at risk every time they log in. 

While it will not be easy to verify user ages safely and effectively, it is far from an impossible task, given the technological leaps and bounds taken to get us this far.

Why social media platforms will struggle with restrictions 

The elephant in the room, however, is that social platforms like having younger users on their platforms. They have all the free time of the unemployed, which boosts advertising. Culture thrives on youth and creativity, and teenagers have this in excess. Teenagers with developing brains also tend to have low self esteem, which has been shown to skyrocket social media use. 

The new regulation puts the burden on social platforms to police user ages. However, solutions will need to come from third parties if the legislation is to work, because it is naive to expect that any company in any industry would effectively innovate against its own interests. 

Who benefits from stricter social media regulation? 

Let us assume – even if it will take several years – that this legislation is effective in barring under-16s from social platforms, and that it spreads to other countries looking to protect their children from the ails of social media use. 

What then? 

Platforms that rely on high amounts of time and attention will have to manage investor and advertiser expectations as their populations of time-wealthy pre-employment users drops. On-app culture will potentially decline without teenagers spending their days creating trends for the apps. This is likely to be a boon for the rest of entertainment, most of which is looking for ways of incorporating higher-margin IRL and analogue activations anyway.

Most importantly, gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, arguably the future of online community and engagement,  are likely to be exempt from regulation, leaving them an open runway to move into the gap left by social. 

YouTube, which exists in a grey area of both social and entertainment, will also likely be exempt in the same way Netflix or Fortnite are, with some content potentially gatekept but use of the platform largely unaffected. 

Apps like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok – all of which have political challenges on top of this regulation – will have to either adapt quickly, or suffer slow and painful declines, as fines and government investigations kick in and, meanwhile, younger users turn to the likes of Roblox.

This regulation will not, in short, result quickly in reformed social media platforms that are kid-friendly spaces. If widely adopted it will, however, force them to adapt in ways that are more likely to usher in the new era of the internet, dominated not by the Facebooks of the world, but the Fortnites.